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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24656629">They need a nap</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Archesa/pseuds/Archesa'>Archesa</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Of sleep, dreams and monsters [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>And they were Lab-partners, Author Is Sleep Deprived, Author Loves Irony, Author has fallen hard for Entrapdak and can't get up, Cuddling, Cuddling &amp; Snuggling, Domestic Fluff, Entrapdak, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Hordak is the biggest softie for his lab-partner, Hordak reflects on the events of seasons 4 and 5, Just a fair heads-up, Not a cry for help, OMG! THEY WERE LAB-PARTNERS, Post-Season 5, Search your feelings you know it to be true, Soft Entrapdak, Soft Hordak (She-Ra), Spoilers for Season 5, The Author Regrets Nothing, There will be more Entrapdak, author had insomnia and accidentally spent 5 hours writing this on their phone, author sees them as romantic, can be read as platonic or romantic, duh!, i guess ?</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 04:00:57</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,056</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24656629</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Archesa/pseuds/Archesa</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>After their victory, the Princesses can't find a moment's respite, given the amount of work at hand, and the destruction remaining in the wake of the Horde.<br/>As exhaustion of countless sleepless nights and adrenaline fuelled days takes its toil on Entrapta, the sudden emptiness of the once and for all severed connection to the Hive-mind troubles Hordak, and has him reflect on the events of the last few months, and his feelings regarding the future. Data never lie : they need a nap!</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Entrapta/Hordak (She-Ra)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Of sleep, dreams and monsters [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1783108</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>155</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>They need a nap</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Inspired from a Tumblr discussion about how Entrapta and Hordak really need to have a moment of privacy to rest together after all they've been through. https://archesa.tumblr.com/post/620594246894895105/after-the-dust-settles-after-the-initial-shock<br/>Basically they need a nap!<br/>A.k.a. "Author had a bad case if insomnia so they a accidentally wrote a Entrapdak fluff fic about them napping together, because they love irony!"</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>After the dust settles... After the initial shock and the thrill of their desperate victory on Horde Prime comes to pass... After the overwhelming warmth and shimmering brilliance of this new world of theirs, radiant with magic - their very old world restored to its prior, primal state - has become less blinding...</p><p>In the aftermath of the cataclysm that almost reduced the entire universe to everlasting flames, the rebellion and the Princesses barely found a moment to even think of rest. Magic had returned to the world, and Prime was defeated, cast away, banished, destroyed by She-Ra, but the people of Etheria still needed help and guidance to overcome the ruin that remained after the Horde's passage.</p><p>Days and nights passed, to the sound of refugees coming and going through soon to be dismantled camps as they returned safely to their homes, to the crackling of spells and the swift gusts of magic flowing free through the atmosphere, to the happy chirping of tech and sometimes a few frustrated bangs against the metal hull of ivy invaded machinery or of otherwise unresponsive computers.</p><p>Exhaustion of months of constant battling and hiding was taking its toll on the survivors, and if overwhelming relief washed upon Etheria, the time to rest was still an eternity out of their reach, postponed for the sake of organisation, postponed till after the celebration...</p><p>Hordak observed the turmoil from a distance - staying in retreat rather than to risk falling out of the rebellion's strangely good graces - unsure of what would emerge from the rubble, of the place he would find once the dust would settle. For years his sole purpose had been his return to grace. His conquest driven by blind faith in a being that never deserved it. His identity derived from Horde Prime's rejection of his most unloved and most unworthy brother.</p><p>The sharp edges of the First One's tech that once powered his exosqueleton dug in the skin of his hand.</p><p>The hand that had strangled Prime and thrown him off the edge of his own throne-room...</p><p>The hand she had taken, days before, when he could only remember her name - terrified that it tasted bitterly sweet on his lips - remember her face - the sparks and shifting glow in which she basked turning him away from Prime's light - remember the pain of her loss - elated beyond reason and beyond recognition to only see her again.</p><p>The hand she once again reached to take, as she sat back to the melodic sound of her computer shutting down, and curled with her knees drawn against her chest, to take just a moment's respite before Bow or anyone else needed her again.</p><p>She tensed slightly, and he almost pulled back, a sharp pang of hurt piercing his chest at the prospect of causing her more discomfort, but the moment was fleeting and gone as fast as it took her to realise the sharp cold surface against her skin belongs to the crystal chip. She smiled, the rings under her eyes seemingly less dark, the pale scar on her cheek vanishing to merely a blemish as a blush crept to her face, regaining a healthier colour, and her hitched breath coming in a long content sigh as she rested her head on his unarmoured shoulder.</p><p>He leaned into this touch, this closeness, this quiet intimacy he only now realised he craved, the warm of her body pressed against his in the chill air of the night bringing him a sense of peace he had not experienced in... Months? Years?</p><p>How long since they last stood together in his lab, in the Fright Zone?</p><p>Etheria had changed so much, and the clutches of Prime - his terrifying return into the hive mind - had distorted his perception of time (a minor inconvenience when two reboots should have obliterated any semblance of will, any shadow of his identity to return him into Big Brother's Light...), so he could only estimate the passage of time to a limited extent... but even before he returned to the Horde's sterile embrace, he had missed her.The devastating pain of her alleged betrayal had left him vulnerable to Catra's lies and manipulations, trapping him back into a mold Entrapta had seamlessly tinkered with and welded him a way out of...</p><p>
  <em>'There was a time you wished I would not come for you, is that so?'</em>
</p><p>He had denied it. But it was true, of course. Prime did not know all, and he did not see all... But he had been right, there.</p><p>There was a time he wanted to stall, to delay the project of his lifetime, just so he would stay a little while longer with her...</p><p>He unwittingly fondled the piece of ancient metal in his hand, and felt her hand tighten around his. Even now, all he wanted was to draw this fleeting moment, to slow the dance of stars, and dull the voices and requests that would inevitably and all too soon tear them apart... To stay here, with her head on his shoulder, and his hand in hers... He smiled when a soft hum broke the flow of his thoughts, and her hair slithered behind his back and curled into a caring but strong embrace.</p><p>Her eyes were closed, her breathing long, deep and slow, and her shoulders and back slumped against him in a way that allowed him to free his hand and wrap it around her back, to hold her close. He laid his head on the top of hers, and hesitantly closed his eyes - only for a moment, he resolved, just for a brief moment...</p><p>The glimmer of stars had long faded into the horizon and golden daylight dawned upon them, when he woke up, rested and content, and... entrapped in a tousle of purple hair, a now familiar weight still pressed against his chest.</p><p>An amused smile curled his lips at at the mere though of the sight they would offer to anyone who'd come with a mind to disturb them, a breathless laugh soon swelling in his chest, alongside with a deeply comforting realisation : The Light of Prime had not managed to separate them, before... And given the annoyed groan that rumbled in Entrapta's chest as her hair shifted to shield them both from the sun, the morning light would not either.</p>
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